Abstract

This text contains a publication of three Hellenistic graves with numerous ceramic goods discovered at a palm nursery in Vis in 1952. The author expresses the opinion that the discovered graves were inside a farm building, in contrast to the view that this is a new Issa necropolis. 31 to 37 items were placed in each grave, which can be classified in various pottery styles: Upper Adriatic ware, Gnathian ware, black gloss ware and plain ware. An iron strigil was also found in the graves. Which items belonged to which grave is not known, because by the time archaeologists had arrived on the scene, all of the items had been removed from the graves. Given the high number of items and only three graves, this author assumes that each grave contained oenochoes, pelikai, skyphoi and pyxides, meaning items which may be associated with a wine-drinking culture (except the pyxides) and which testify to the fact that viniculture and wine played a major role in the economy and life of the Issa community, which is also reflected in burial rites. Interments at the nursery began at the late fourth or early third century BC, and they were contemporary and typologically identical to those at Martvilo and Vlaška njiva (the western and eastern Issa necropolises). The burials were from the era of full affirmation of the city, when Issa, as a city with a flourishing economy, began to penetrate into the surrounding southern and central zones of the Eastern Adriatic, with the goal of establishing their own settlements and shrines, creating their own sympoliteia.

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